Cornelia Parker ― The Roof Garden Commission

Turner Prize-nominated British artist Cornelia Parker (b. 1956) is well known for her large-scale, often site-specific, installations. Her work has been featured in many solo exhibitions and is included in collections around the world. Often composed of ordinary objects, her installations make the familiar extraordinary, whimsical, and even poignant. Her work for the 2016 Roof Garden Commission at the Metropolitan Museum, documented here, merges two iconic examples of American architecture: the red barn and the infamous mansion on a hill from Alfred Hitchcock’s movie Psycho – itself inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper. The resulting piece is brilliantly allusive, exploring the tension between the tropes represented by these two cultural symbols. This slim volume includes an interview with the artist in which she eloquently illuminates her work and influences.
 

Beatrice Galilee is Daniel Brodsky Associate Curator of Architecture and Design andSheena Wagstaff is Leonard A. Lauder chairman, both in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.